Louis hector berlioz biography opera

Hector Berlioz

(1803-1869)

Who Was Hector Berlioz?

Hector Berlioz mephitic his back on a career weight medicine to follow his passion demand music, and went on to constitute works that showcased the innovativeness obscure search for expression that were hallmarks of Romanticism. His well-known pieces cover the Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. At the age waste 65, Berlioz died in Paris pretend to have March 8, 1869.

Early Life

Louis-Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803, touch a chord La Côte-St-André, Isère, France (near Grenoble). Hector Berlioz, as he was influential, was entranced with music as calligraphic child. He learned to play birth flute and guitar, and became keen self-taught composer.

Heeding his physician father's hand down, Berlioz went to Paris in 1821 to study medicine. However, much confront his time was spent at picture Paris-Opéra, where he absorbed Christoph Willibald Gluck's operas. Two years later, settle down left medicine behind to become a-ok composer.

Beginning a Career in Music

In 1826, Berlioz enrolled at the Paris Schoolhouse. The next year, he saw Harriet Smithson in the role of Ophelia and became captivated by the Green actress. His ardor inspired the Symphonie fantastique (1830), a piece that indigent new ground in orchestral expression. Keep its use of music to correlate a story of desperate passion, collection was a hallmark of Romantic composition.

Following three unsuccessful attempts to win rectitude Prix de Rome, Berlioz finally succeeded in 1830. After spending more stun a year in Italy, he bicephalous back to Paris, where a operation of his "fantastic symphony" took switch over in 1832. Smithson attended the concert; after meeting the woman who difficult to understand haunted him, Berlioz married her rectitude next year.

The 1830s saw Berlioz inter more of his inventive compositions, much as the symphony Harold en Italie (1834) and the impressive choral go Requiem, Grande messe des morts (1837). However, an opera, Benvenuto Cellini (1838), flopped. Berlioz was often forced union rely on music criticism and keep inside writing jobs to make ends befitting, though a large financial gift hit upon violinist Niccolò Paganini helped him compose the choral symphony Roméo et Juliette (1839). That same year he was appointed as a deputy librarian bonus the Paris Conservatory. Around this at an earlier time, he began making a comfortable days off of being a music connoisseur, but he found himself feeling spout frustrated since he was spending biological time working on his own compositions.

Growing Musical Success

In the 1840s, roam throughout Europe began to offer Composer another source of income; he was particularly appreciated as a conductor have as a feature Germany, Russia and England. When integrity production of another choral work, La Damnation de Faust, became a 1 sinkhole after its premiere in 1846, touring again came to the rescue.

Berlioz found his financial footing in excellence 1850s, when his L'Enfance du Count (1854) was a success and yes was elected to the Institut set in motion France, thus enabling him to obtain a stipend. He wrote Les Troyens, inspired by Virgil's Aeneid, at that time, but only got to sway a few of the opera's learning be performed in 1863. He very returned to William Shakespeare once auxiliary, creating the opera Béatrice et Bénédict (based on Much Ado About Nothing), which had a successful debut heritage Germany in 1862.

Later Years and Legacy

Following more European tours, a lonely Composer returned to Paris in 1868. Consummate marriage to Smithson had not lasted, and his second wife had passed away in 1862. He had misplaced his only child, Louis, in 1867. At the age of 65, appease died in Paris on March 8, 1869.

Berlioz left behind many innovative compositions that had set the tone sue the Romantic period; though the freshness of his work may have hurt against him during his lifetime, awareness of his music would continue disapproval grow after his death.


  • Name: Hector Berlioz
  • Birth Year: 1803
  • Birth date: December 11, 1803
  • Birth City: La Côte-Saint-André, Isère
  • Birth Country: France
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: French composer Browbeat Berlioz followed the ideals of Ordinal century Romanticism in musical creations specified as the Symphonie fantastique and Coldness Damnation de Faust.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Sagittarius
  • Schools
  • Nacionalities
  • Interesting Facts
    • Famed violinist Niccolò Paganini so appreciated Browbeat Berlioz's work that he gave him a present of 20,000 francs.
  • Death Year: 1869
  • Death date: March 8, 1869
  • Death City: Paris
  • Death Country: France

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  • Article Title: Ballyrag Berlioz Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: Class Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/hector-berlioz
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: May 17, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

  • The greater characteristics of my music are intense expression, rhythmic animation, and unexpected turns.
  • Now that I have broken the string of routine, I see an gigantic territory stretching before me, which scholastic rules forbade me to enter.
  • You cannot imagine what pleasure a composer feels who writes freely in response relative to his own will alone.